Best Practices in Distnace Learning

Best Practices in Online Course Delivery

The instructor encourages student-faculty contact and interaction.

Frequent student-faculty contact is the most important factor in student motivation, intellectual commitment, and personal development. Feedback from faculty is an important factor in online student success and satisfaction. The following types of activities show that the instructor maintains contact with students. The instructor:

offers an alternative form of contact–phone calls, fax, face-to-face;

establishes virtual office hours: times when you are available for online chats, phone calls, or email;

lets students "sit in" on physical class or work one-on-one with them.

The instructor gives prompt feedback.

The instructor role is key, as it gives the students help in assessing their knowledge and competence. The following types of activities show that the instructor gives prompt feedback to students. The instructor:

responds with frequent email: with answers to questions, comments about lesson/unit content, giving directions and information;

returns tests, papers, assignments, etc., within one week;

holds virtual office hours for students to discuss their graded work;

posts or sends grades regularly;

acknowledges all student questions;

uses quizzes/questions that require students to review the content (self-check or automatically graded online);

ask students to complete a personality questionnaire for the formation of compatible and effective learning/study/work groups

ask students (if appropriate to subject) to provide peer feedback on assignments.

The instructor encourages active learning.

To maximize learning, students must interact with the material they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and incorporate what they are learning into their world view. The following types of activities show that the instructor encourages active learning. The instructor:

encourages student questions, input, feedback (if the course material is appropriate); and clearly states that all points of view are welcome and respected;

becomes involved in class discussions;

regularly sends general messages to the whole class;

follows up on students who are not participating;

asks students to state what they expect to learn in the class;

asks students to provide and critique URLs that enhance learning;

asks students to teach their classmates;

asks students to develop/create learning activities and projects;

encourages opinions as well as facts;

asks students to critique other students’ work;

asks student to reflect on their performance, their progress, their problems, and their process. What have you learned (in your own words)? Why is this new knowledge important?

uses quizzes/questions that require students to review the content (self-check or automatically graded online);

follows up reading assignments with discussions, simulations, or applications to case studies/scenarios;

selects real-world, relevant, and practical assignments that allow students to apply and practice the concepts learned;

offers frequent short assignments/quizzes or other frequent "in-progress" feedback opportunities;

establishes replies and responses as important values of online discussions, through tone, modeling, and grade weighting.

The instructor respects diverse talents and ways of learning (UDL).

Helping a student to recognize his own learning style can improve a student's learning. Recognizing the learning styles of others can increase a student's repertoire of learning strategies. The following types of activities show that the instructor respects diverse talents and ways of learning. The instructor:

asks students to complete a learning style assessment questionnaire at the beginning of the semester;

designs more than one method of assessment and demonstration of student achievement; allows students to choose from different possible modes of project presentation, established up front in a learning contract between instructor and student;

encourages students to use the web and other resources/media to master course content by incorporating web-based assignments into your curriculum and reading assignments;

recognizes that distance education and online classes are not the preferred or best learning environment for some students; refers students to the “Is Distance Learning Right for You?” page online.

is sensitive to possible cultural differences, especially communicating with students for whom English is a second language;